While Abii earned a degree in scenography from Sangmyung University in 2011 due to her love of reading plays and visualizing theatrical sets, her student hobby was porcelain painting, which influenced her career choice (resulting in six years as a professional porcelain artist). Her interest in tattoos sprang from a desire to see her works […]
Author: The Tattoo Journalist
Tattooing Beloved Pets: An Interview with Kimria
The South Korean film industry, like the tattoo industry, is thriving. South Korea is a fine-line micro tattooing powerhouse because the quality and skill are exceptional, as demonstrated by Kimria, a Seoul-based artist specializing in pet portraits on skin. Kimria, who works in black-and-grey and color, discusses her passion for assisting clients in reconnecting with […]
Shane Tan, a Tattoo Artist, Talks About His Incredible Bodysuits
Shane Tan was born in Singapore in 1984 and has had a passion for tattooing since he was a child. His immediate family members had tattoos, and they were acquainted with first- and second-generation tattoo artists. Tan’s father bought him a coil machine for his sixteenth birthday, which he taught himself how to operate. Spending […]
The Rebirth of Old Crow Tattoo: An Interview with Owner Hannah Wolf
Old Crow Tattoo studio was founded in 2009 by Philip Milic and acquired by tattoo artist Hannah Wolf in 2020. Now situated at 5250 College Ave in Oakland, California, it is a female-run studio with resident artists Hannah Wolf, Laura Taylor, Natasha Tsozik, and international guest tattooists. During an in-person conversation with Wolf, we learned […]
Stephen C Stratton: The Journey of a Tattoo Anthropologist
Stephen C Stratton, a youngster in the late 1970s, tattooed his buddies with a popsicle stick and taped sewing needles. At The Needle Master studio, he got his first professional tattoo, a Lambretta-scooter motif connected with the Mod revival subculture. Stratton joined the military and became a nurse a decade later. Because tattoos were frowned […]
Kari Barba: The Queen of Modern Tattooing
Kari Barba has been tattooing for four decades. She was one of the few female tattooists in the 1980s and has devoted herself to promoting gender equality and advancing tattoo hygiene standards to what they are today. She is tattoo royalty and the co-owner of Outer Limits, the longest-running tattoo studio in America and the […]
Delphin Musquet: On a Mission to Produce Timeless Tattoos
The first time I met Delphin Musquet, he was lying on a portable table in agony as Giorgio de Duesanti inked his body at a Californian event in 2019. Both he and Duesanti are part of the resident team at Sang Bleu—a well-known brand and studio based in London, Zurich, and Los Angeles. Musquet established in the […]
Charlie Cartwright: The Godfather of Black-and-Grey Fine Line Tattooing
On my way to Charlie Cartwright’s home in Modesto, California, I was excited to be conducting a rare interview with the pioneer of single-needle tattooing. Cartwright (plus Jack Rudy and Freddy Negrete) changed the tattoo scene’s course; better yet, they helped build it to what it is today. All of them were inspired by 20th-century […]
High-Precision Realism: Interview with Tattooist Denis “Tidan” Torikashvili
Hailing from South Russia, specifically Rostov-on-Don, Denis “Tidan” Torikashvili began his tattooing career in 1997. That’s 23 years ago when there was barely an industry, acceptance, and fair working conditions. Tidan has had many setbacks and restarts, from moving and working in Moscow to London—the latter getting a big break at NR Studio in 2017. […]
Paradox: Mandala Tattoos and the Meaning of Life
Paradox’s career as a graphic designer producing logotypes and business cards in a stuffy office is almost like a past life. What made him quit, was his unwillingness to continue working a 9 to 5 job. Based in Enschede, Eastern Netherlands near the German border, Paradox attentively works with his clients, making tattoos that are spiritual […]